Celtics hold edge over Wizards at home in Game 7

With one game on their home floor separating them from the Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics are where they want to be.

Boston missed an opportunity to fire the first shot on the road and close out the fiery series with the Washington Wizards in Game 6, but with the deciding contest in their backyard, the Celtics remain in prime position to earn a meeting with Cleveland in the next round.

The home team has won all 10 of the regular season and playoff match-ups between the teams, with both sides performing dramatically different depending on location.

Boston failed to steal a win at the Verizon Center, while struggling with averages of 94.0 points, 40 per cent shooting and a minus-15.7 point differential.

Back home, however, the Celtics are unbeaten in the series, putting up 125.0 points per game on 51.7 per cent shooting and outscoring the Wizards by an average of 14.7.

With Boston and Washington both boasting strong starting lineups, Game 7 may come down to the benches and at TD Garden, the Celtics’ reserves boast a plus-7.5 plus-minus, compared to minus-8.7 for the Wizards.

While home-court advantage doesn’t skew to these extremes, it’s common for teams to shoot better and get more from their role players in their own building. But geography isn’t the only factor favouring the Celtics in Game 7.

After getting walloped in Game 2 and 3 in Washington, Boston has been the better team. They blew out the Wizards at home in a pivotal Game 5 and were a deep John Wall pull-up 3-point miss away from wrapping up the series on the road in the previous outing, despite getting all of five points from their second unit.

Isaiah Thomas hasn’t been the same since dropping 53 points in Game 2, with Washington throwing multiple defenders at him when he’s coming off ball screens. He’s gradually improved at becoming more of a playmaker throughout the series and when he’s not throwing the ball away – like he crucially did up five and close to a minute remaining in Game 6 – he’s been finding open shooters on the perimeter.

Thomas may not need a big effort in Game 7 for Boston to close it out, but Al Horford will almost certainly need to keep playing at a high level. The big man has been nothing short of extremely efficient through the six games, shooting 68.9 per cent overall and 57.1 per cent from deep. When Thomas has been trapped, Horford has helped alleviate pressure with his spacing and passing. Washington has had no answer for him and he, along with back-up big Kelly Olynyk, have the ability to beat Marcin Gortat and Ian Mahinmi off the dribble when played aggressively at the top of the arc.

The Wizards will play in a Game 7 for the first time since the 1979 Eastern Conference Finals (won, 107-105 over the Spurs). pic.twitter.com/MKIwdcZz1B

John Wall and Bradley Beal present their own problems, especially in regards to who Thomas will have to defend, and Gortat was a terror on the glass in Game 6 to buy his team extra possessions, but it feels as if the Celtics have made the necessary adjustments over the course of the series.

The issue with a Game 7, however, is that those adjustments may not matter in the same way they would over a multiple-game series. Game 7s can bring out high variance and often, it’s just about execution and making shots. Home court affords Boston the edge, but they still have to make good on that.

“That’s where all the great players make their name,” Celtics star guard Isaiah Thomas said of Game 7. “You gotta give it everything you’ve got. I guess that’s where legends are born. I’m excited.

“To have Game 7 back in Boston in the Garden. If you had said that back in October, that there’d be a Game 7 in the second round, a lot of people probably wouldn’t even believe that. So we’re excited.”

Warriors face their biggest challenge yet against Spurs

Finally, the gold standard of the NBA will clash with the league’s burgeoning dynasty in the playoffs to determine who rules the West.

The match-up between the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs will not only feature the two best teams from this past regular season, but from last year as well, with the sides meeting for the first time in the playoffs during the Warriors’ three-year stretch of dominance.

Golden State barely broke a sweat in sweeping opponents through the first two rounds, while San Antonio have had a more challenging road, needing six games to overcome both Memphis and Houston.

As heavily favoured as the Warriors are, the Spurs have proven they’re capable of at least making the road more challenging for the team from the Bay.

San Antonio claimed two of the three regular season meetings, including an opening night blowout win. The other victory, however, came in a contest in which both sides rested their key players, while the loss saw Golden State overcome a 22-point deficit.

In the two games that included the regular starters, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich trotted out a more traditional line-up with two big men. While the Warriors are at their best when they go small and play Draymond Green at centre, San Antonio prefer to utilise their size and do damage in the paint and on the glass.

The Spurs grabbed 27 more rebounds in total across those two games, while holding a massive 48-22 edge in second-chance points.

“That’s how they won this last series (against Houston), by keeping balls alive,” said Golden State forward Kevin Durant said.

“They murdered us that in first game with rebounds, but that was the first game of the season.

“We’ve gotten so much better and more comfortable with each other since then, but we know offensive rebounding always translates no matter what.

“If we give up offensive rebounds and they take more shots than us, it’s going to be hard for us to win.”

Durant only played in the season opener against the Spurs, but dropped 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting while grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing four assists.

He and MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard will go head-to-head, with the latter dealing with an ankle injury that kept him out of the series-clinching Game 6 victory over the Rockets.

In the absence of Leonard and with point guard Tony Parker out to a leg injury, San Antonio have needed LaMarcus Aldridge to step up and the big man has delivered.

“He’s really turned it on, demanded the ball, got in good position using his body, and not always settling for a jumper,” Popovich said of Aldridge. “[He got] to the rim, did a really good job.”

Golden State’s jack-of-all-trades, Green, will pose a challenge for Aldridge on both ends and the match-up has the potential to dictate the series, which begins with Game 1 at Oracle Arena (UAE: 23:30).

Cavaliers back to their best as LeBron raises bar to superhuman levels

Flipping the proverbial switch should never be made to look this easy, but then again, LeBron James makes a lot of absurdities look easy.

One month ago, after back-to-back losses to Atlanta that crippled Cleveland’s grip on the Eastern Conference’s top seed, we were asking “what’s wrong with the Cavaliers?” for what seemed like the umpteenth time since the season began.

Today, in this moment, the only question worth asking regarding Cleveland is whether they’ll even lose a game ahead of an inevitable third-straight trip to the NBA Finals.

The Cavaliers’ current air of invincibility isn’t just the result of them getting to this point again, but an effect of how easily they’ve done it – two sweeps stemming from LeBron playing out of his mind, deadly 3-point shooting and much-improved defence.

It hasn’t been flawless by any means. There have been small lapses interlaced with the long stretches of dominance, which, aside from reminding us this team isn’t perfect, have almost made their performance seem more impressive.

Take the first-round sweep against Indiana. Yes, the Cavaliers never truly looked threatened and the short series indicates as much. However, they earned their wins by a point differential of one, six, five and four, respectively, for a plus-16 total in the match-up. That tied Cleveland with the 1975 Golden State Warriors for the lowest margin of victory in a four-game sweep in NBA history. Basically, it was as close of a sweep as we’ve ever seen.

No one considered the Pacers to be the type of team to capitalise on the Cavaliers’ weaknesses though. So if Paul George and little else could play the defending champions that close, what would happen when Cleveland met a team of real substance?

As it turns out, not a whole lot changed. In fact, the Cavaliers feasted on the Toronto Raptors more comfortably than they did Indiana, claiming another sweep against their foes from north, but this time with an average margin of victory of 15.2 points.

It’s difficult to discern how much of the series was a case of the Raptors not playing well or failing to take advantage of opportunities, and how much of it was Cleveland just stomping on – what at the time seemed legitimate, yet in hindsight has proven to be just cute – belief a revamped roster with Serge Ibaka and PJ Tucker could hang and maybe even conquer their giants.

Any time Indiana or Toronto came close to turning the tide, the Cavaliers responded and kept them at arm’s length. Playing with fire has been nothing new for Cleveland and they’ve taken it to heightened levels of daring this season, but it’s almost as if they’re mastering how much and when to care in the playoffs. Instead of taking it by game though, as they often did during the regular season, it’s been by possession in the playoffs.

That type of flaw makes them human, even as they employ an immortal force in LeBron. It’s an interesting concoction which both makes them more interesting than their impervious rivals in the Bay and emphasises just how ridiculous LeBron is.

The best player on the planet isn’t just maintaining his otherworldly level as he rises in age, he’s unfathomably getting better. And you can only imagine what little room remained between what LeBron had already accomplished and what’s actually physically, humanly possible.

Yet here we are, in the midst of 32-year-old LeBron having the best postseason of his career with averages of 34.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 2.1 steals, 1.5 blocks, 55.7 per cent shooting from the field and 46.8 per cent from deep. Granted it’s been eight games and tougher opponents await on the horizon, but time and time again LeBron has made it clear that there’s nothing he can’t do.

Shaq at his best finishing inside the paint + Steph Curry at his best shooting from downtown...

The Cavaliers’ issues in the regular season had little to do with LeBron himself, but it’s not a coincidence they’ve turned it on while he’s gone Super Saiyan. As one of the best to ever play the game, LeBron can cover up cover deficiencies like very few others can.

Will it be enough for him to lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the fourth time? The Golden State Warriors still loom large and that will be a mountain the likes of which LeBron has never scaled before. But as unavoidable as that question will become in a few weeks’ time, it’s not something Cleveland have to worry about as they prepare for the penultimate step in their journey.

Right now, all that matters is the Cavaliers have somehow managed to play their best basketball of the entire season at the very exact time they wanted and needed to.